The former wife of Russian President Vladimir Putin helped create and now supports a foundation that owns a historic Moscow property generating millions of dollars from tenants, a Reuters examination of property records has found.
The building was renovated with help from associates of Putin and the rental income is paid to a private company owned by a person whose name is the same as the maiden name of Putin's former wife, corporate records show.
The rent comes from Volkonsky House in central Moscow, which was an aristocrat's home in pre-Soviet times and is now owned by the Centre for the Development of Inter-personal Communications (CDIC).
Lyudmila Putina helped set up the non-commercial foundation, according to a report in state newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta and two sources who worked with the centre. Lyudmila was Putin’s wife from 1983 until their divorce, which was announced in 2013.
The foundation was created in 2002, and in September 2006 Rossiiskaya Gazeta described Lyudmila as a "trustee" of the organisation. In an interview with the newspaper that year, she used the term "we" when discussing the foundation, and three sources currently familiar with the foundation's work said Lyudmila supports a literary prize and publishing arm that the foundation runs.
The CDIC has offices in Volkonsky House, but most of the building is let out to tenants, including two big state banks, documents show.
The tenants pay rent to a company called Meridian, which is 99 percent owned by a company called Intererservis, corporate and property records reviewed by Reuters in early May showed.
Intererservis, according to a state register of corporate entities, has been wholly owned since 2014 by a woman called Lyudmila Alexandrovna Shkrebnyova – which is the maiden name of Putin’s former wife.
Reuters was unable to find documents confirming that Shkrebnyova and Putin's ex-wife are the same person. But other connections, besides the name, point to the former first lady and the owner of Intererservis being the same person.
A previous general director of Intererservis was Olga Alexandrovna Tsomayeva. Several Russian media reports refer to her as the sister of Putin’s former wife.
In addition, the other 1 percent of Meridian is owned by Tatiana Shestakova, who was the wife of Vasily Shestakov, an old friend and judo sparring partner of Putin, until the Shestakovs divorced in 2013. Shestakova also helped create the CDIC, according to the state registry of corporate entities.
The Kremlin property department supervised the renovation work on the Volkonsky House in Moscow's Vozdvizhenka Street, according to rental documents reviewed by Reuters, even though the building no longer belonged to the state at the time.
The Russian bank VTB, one of the current tenants in Volkonsky House, alone pays more than $2 million in annual rent, according to a tender document posted on a government website in 2015.
The arrangements appear to fit a pattern in Putin's Russia, whereby people close to the President benefit from contracts, loans, grants or assets from state enterprises or entities closely linked to the Kremlin.
Reuters has previously reported how Putin's son-in-law, Kirill Shamalov, became a billionaire after marrying a daughter of the President by acquiring a large stake in a leading Russian gas and petrochemicals company. Reuters also reported how Shamalov acquired a substantial property in Biarritz, France, from a close associate of Putin.
Helpful Friends
The building at 9 Vozdvizhenka Street is known as the Volkonsky House after its former owner General Nikolai Volkonsky, the grandfather of author Leo Tolstoy.
The property was in need of renovation and around 2005, major refurbishment was carried out. The President’s allies stepped in to help.
The Konstantinovsky Foundation, which was set up soon after Putin became President to restore the Konstantinovsky Palace near Putin's native St Petersburg, provided financial help, according to its website. The President often uses the palace to host foreign leaders.
Vladimir Kozhin, who from 2000 until 2014 was head of the Kremlin property department, was on the board of the Konstaninovsky Foundation at the time the renovation work was carried out on Volkonsky House. Kozhin remains on the board, which has at least one other associate of Putin on it.
Yelena Krylova, a spokeswoman for the Kremlin property department, said she had no information about the department having been involved in the renovation.
The first phase of work was completed by 2005, according to property documents, and later an extra floor was added. Natalia Samover, a historian who campaigned against the addition, told Reuters:
The building has lost its historical appearance. We no longer have the Volkonsky House, we have an eyesore half a kilometre from the Kremlin.
Volkonsky House now has 5,288 square metres of floor space available for rent, according to the state property register – an area slightly larger than the White House in Washington DC.
Valuable Tenants
For an undisclosed amount, the CDIC lets most of Volkonsky House to Meridian, which sub-lets out space in the property. VTB, one of Russia's largest banks, rents 3,011 square metres, according to the 2015 tender document posted on the state procurement website. That document gives the value of the contract as 584 million roubles over a five year period, or $2.02 million per year.
Asked to comment, VTB said in a statement:
We rent these premises for the needs of the retail and corporate businesses of VTB group.
Other tenants include state lender Sberbank; the Severstroygroup construction company, which has won defence ministry contracts; a travel agency; a sushi restaurant; and a Burger King outlet. Sberbank said it had rented space at market rates as part of its branch strategy; Severstroygroup did not respond to requests for comment.
(Published in arrangement with Reuters.)
(This article has been edited for length.)